1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of detecting brain area displacements as a result of tumor formation and their presentation on an image screen for purposes of ensuring optimum planning for an operation.
2. The Prior Art
In neurosurgery, the availability of efficient navigational devices by medical technology that conventionally guided stereotactic operating methods on a broad clinical basis were abandoned in favor of navigated interventions guided by image presenting controls. Neurosurgeons have at their disposal CD-versions of stereotactic atlases developed by Talairach and Schaltenbrand. Surgical access paths can now be monitored by atlas series which can be correlated with image series. It is thus possible to estimate risks even before an operation. The correlation also makes possible improved planning and provides important decision criteria for the execution of an operation, in the search for important anatomical land marks and physiological centers in the case of special procedures, e.g. Parkinson. The occurrence of brain tumors leads to spatial demands within the skull and, hence, to changes in pressure and local changes of brain areas.
The disadvantage of known atlases is that they do not take into consideration local changes, in particular local displacements of brain areas. Hence, they can be used on a limited scale only in surgery seeking to remove tumors.